Ubisoft, once a stalwart supporter of Nintendo's Wii U, is holding off on releasing an unannounced new title for the console until there are more of them in people's homes, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot told Polygon this week.

Watch Dogs, Guillemot said, is still coming to the Wii U this November, but Ubisoft is being much more careful with new projects.

"We did adapt the number of products to the level of quantities that the machine did," he said. "So we will have Just Dance again which is well suited for the machine. We'll have Watch Dogs. We have another couple of products that we are waiting to launch, specifically we have one game that we wait for the machine to be more mass market to launch."

Guillemot declined to say how many Wii U would have to sell to make releasing the games worthwhile.

"We don't have a number," he said. "We need the sales to increase so it becomes more and more mass market then we will have the volume that will justify massive marketing and TV marketing."

Does he think that day will ever come, I asked.

"I hope so," he said. "We have a game that has been done for six months. It's on the shelf, waiting for more families to have the console."

The decision to freeze completed games, especially coming from Ubisoft, is a stark reminder of the position Nintendo finds itself in this year. It was Ubisoft that has been for years Nintendo's third-party champion. They supported the release of the Wii and its motion controls with Red Steel. When MotionPlus was released, Red Steel 2 came out to support that technology. And the release of Wii U came at the same time as one of the console's better third-party titles: Ubisoft's ZombiU.

But ZombiU didn't sell as well as Ubisoft had hoped, in part because of the low console sales numbers. That franchise now appears to be dead in the water, even for other platforms.

"I think it was so adapted to the Wii U so (bringing it to another platform) would be difficult to do," he said. "Maybe it will come to other platforms, but not as a full game. It was really developed for that type of machine."

Despite how low sales of the Wii U have seemingly impacted Ubisoft, Guillemot remains at least slightly upbeat about the possibility that the Wii U could turn around.

"Nintendo is really coming up with fantastic games," he said. "They could, with the right price and very good games, help the machine start selling."

What if, we asked, the Wii U never hits that point.

"It could never come out," he said. "It could come out on another format... "

So how long is Ubisoft willing to wait, is this the last year the Wii U has to prove itself?

"I think we have to wait for Smash Bros. to come," he said. "Smash Bros has always been a big, big property for Nintendo and for gamers. And we all know that there are lots of Nintendo fans that are waiting for big games to come. We know they are coming. We don't know if they will still be there. I think when I speak with the fans that come to E3 90 percent of them are crazy Nintendo fans. They really love Nintendo and the games they do."

It's the chicken and the egg thing. Developers won't make games for the console unless more people buy it...people won't buy the console without the games.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Nintendo needs to step up its marketing in a massive way. They also need to learn how to release a console, which is surprising because their philosophy when it comes to games has always been "it will ship when it's ready." If that's the case then why the ###### did the Wii U launch without a Mario Kart game? Or a Mario game? Or a DK game? Or any of Nintendo's best selling franchises. Instead the console launched mostly with games that were already out for other platforms and Nintendo Land. Sure Nintendo Land looks like fun, but it's not a best seller and it doesn't sell consoles. As for the other games, people who already own an xbox / pc / PS aren't going to suddenly go "sweet I'd love to pay $300 + $60 for a console and a game I already own and finished."

I think Nintendo just looked at the sales of the Wii and went sweet we sold 100 million, let's just take it easy from here on. They never really took the time to fully market how the wii u was different to the Wii, how the gamepad should be used, their franchises etc. All that did was convince a lot of people that the Wii U was just an accessory for the Wii.

They're a business and they got burned with Wii U, probably the AC titles, Blacklist, and especially ZombiU were not cheap and sales likely did not recoup the expenses. Or if they did, not to an impressive degree. ZombiU probably hurt Yves especially, as that was a remake of the very first Ubi game...on a console that sort of sounds like it was named after Ubisoft yet not many people bought it....

I don't blame Ubi for being scared of taking further risks, but it is chicken and egg as Razor said, and a shame for the Wii U, which is a great system i think

I don't blame Ubi for being scared of taking further risks, but it is chicken and egg as Razor said, and a shame for the Wii U, which is a great system i think

No amount of eggs (games) is going to matter if the mother hen (console) is dead. Consoles usually sell and the games then follow. The Wii U has massively underperformed, meaning that developers are backing away. ZombiU, one of Ubisoft's launch titles for the platform, actually lost money.

That seems a bit backwards. The company are waiting for more users before offering the game, but there are bound to be some users who are waiting on a wider selection of games before they buy the console. Although if "finished" just refers to development rather than meaning the actual manufactured CD, it could make sense that they don't want to pay for the manufacturing on something that they are still uncertain about.

I think they should take the plunge on a popular title, the Nintendo was outselling the ps4 for a while, maybe the customers are waiting for 'said' new title(s) to launch before they commit to buy.........

No amount of eggs (games) is going to matter if the mother hen (console) is dead. Consoles usually sell and the games then follow. The Wii U has massively underperformed, meaning that developers are backing away. ZombiU, one of Ubisoft's launch titles for the platform, actually lost money.

The Wii U just isn't what gamers want.

Can't be a hypocrite...bought PS4 and X1 over Wii U, and will likely upgrade my PC later this year, so not sure if i'll ever get around to buying a Wii U. It's definitely low on the priority list for most gamers, it seems. The main reason i can think of is being out of step with the times in terms of performance, though to be fair in real world on your TV terms it doesn't really show that much - games look good on Wii U.

Looks like a new Ubisoft game is coming on for the Xbox One and PS4 after December because it's unlikely that Smash Bros will increase the Wii U sales by the amount that Ubisoft hopes. Plus, there's a 3DS version, which is probably the one that most people will buy.

No amount of eggs (games) is going to matter if the mother hen (console) is dead. Consoles usually sell and the games then follow. The Wii U has massively underperformed, meaning that developers are backing away. ZombiU, one of Ubisoft's launch titles for the platform, actually lost money.

The Wii U just isn't what gamers want.

That depends, Nintendo has already shown that 1 game can turn things around.

ZombiU is a pretty dam good game and most people who have Wii U will agree that it should be a must buy. However it all goes down to Nintendo's extremely botched launch. There weren't any first party exclusives, the name just sounded like an accessory for the Wii, the vast majority of games were just remakes of games that already existed on other platforms. Literally the only new games were Nintendo Land, Super Mario Bros U and ZombiU. If I was in the market for a new console in 2012 and that's the line up I saw...I wouldn't buy a Wii U. If I owned a 360, PS3 or a PC I could have already played most of those launch titles and I'm not going to shell out money on a new console just so that I could play Assassin's Creed 3 or Mass Effect 3 again. That's not how it usually works.

Nintendo should have waited until they had better first party wii u games out. Hell if you look at all their best selling games, every single one but two came out at the end of 2013 almost a year after the console was released.

That depends, Nintendo has already shown that 1 game can turn things around.

ZombiU is a pretty dam good game and most people who have Wii U will agree that it should be a must buy. However it all goes down to Nintendo's extremely botched launch. There weren't any first party exclusives, the name just sounded like an accessory for the Wii, the vast majority of games were just remakes of games that already existed on other platforms. Literally the only new games were Nintendo Land, Super Mario Bros U and ZombiU. If I was in the market for a new console in 2012 and that's the line up I saw...I wouldn't buy a Wii U. If I owned a 360, PS3 or a PC I could have already played most of those launch titles and I'm not going to shell out money on a new console just so that I could play Assassin's Creed 3 or Mass Effect 3 again. That's not how it usually works.

Nintendo should have waited until they had better first party wii u games out. Hell if you look at all their best selling games, every single one but two came out at the end of 2013 almost a year after the console was released.

Also pricing...if possible, they should price the new bundles at $249, though i suspect at that point they will be losing money. The bottom line is that most gamers simply don't have the money. We're forced to make a sadistic choice, and these days most choose one of the other platforms. It's a vicious cycle for sure, the only way to try and break out of it is to make the product more affordable. I can't afford to support our habit on three consoles plus PC, i mean technically i could, but i live in the real world with housing, car, travel, food, utilities, healthcare and who knows what else...so back to that sadistic choice.

No amount of eggs (games) is going to matter if the mother hen (console) is dead. Consoles usually sell and the games then follow. The Wii U has massively underperformed, meaning that developers are backing away. ZombiU, one of Ubisoft's launch titles for the platform, actually lost money.

The Wii U just isn't what gamers want.

most people didn't even know that the wii u was a different system. Though I also think that there probably wasn't a lot of demand for an HD Wii. They should have called it; Wii 2 HD.

I don't think the Wii U is ever going to catch up to Gamecube lifetime sales. It's still going to be a great console (I own one now) and the games on it, even the third party exclusives, are pretty good. I think Nintendo needs to use this time to build up their network to better compete with Xbox Live/PSN. They should be using this time to add a unified account system sooner rather than later, a more robust or ultimate Virtual Console, less priority but still would be nice some sort of achievement system. Gamers like to brag and there's no better way to brag than to show people your achievements. Better use of the gamepad, which again is the same problem Microsoft has with the Kinect.

I think if they use this time to "catch up" to the other consoles in terms of network capabilities and offerings then they'll be in a better position the next round to offer a more compelling product to more people than just Nintendo fans.

I don't think the Wii U is ever going to catch up to Gamecube lifetime sales. It's still going to be a great console (I own one now) and the games on it, even the third party exclusives, are pretty good. I think Nintendo needs to use this time to build up their network to better compete with Xbox Live/PSN. They should be using this time to add a unified account system sooner rather than later, a more robust or ultimate Virtual Console, less priority but still would be nice some sort of achievement system. Gamers like to brag and there's no better way to brag than to show people your achievements. Better use of the gamepad, which again is the same problem Microsoft has with the Kinect.

I think if they use this time to "catch up" to the other consoles in terms of network capabilities and offerings then they'll be in a better position the next round to offer a more compelling product to more people than just Nintendo fans.

They need achievements, as well. We can mock achievements and trophies all we want, but they help sales and they genuinely foster an identity for gamers and devices/services. We all know this to be true.